From the 12th century Norse saga of Grettir the Strong, a passage in chapter 82 reads: “So mighty was the blow that the sword could not hold against it, and a piece was broken out of the edge” (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir). This description does not mean the edge was supposed to be able to take the blow, however, and the example is entirely consistent with modern experiments in which sections of sword edges are literally shorn off from strong cuts of other sword edges.
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